Liverpool U21s 3-0 Fulham U21s

Fulham Under-21s went down by three goals to nil against a strong Liverpool outfit in Merseyside on Monday afternoon.

The Whites went into the game looking to build on their fine win against Manchester City, but an established Reds side featuring Joe Cole proved too strong.

“The scoreline was probably fair enough as they created the better chances,” Manager Kit Symons told fulhamfc.com after the game. “We were one-nil down at half-time through a goal from Joe Cole who scored with a good finish across the ‘keeper.

“In the second half they were the better team; we were up against the wind and couldn't really get out of our half. Although saying that, we had a really good chance early on in the second period to equalise which we didn’t take. Tom Donegan got a good cross in from the right – he worked very hard today and was probably our best player – he flashed the ball across the face of the goal and then two or three players came in but all just missed it for a tap-in.

“We lacked a bit of belief and came too deep and couldn’t really get out – we were penned in for long periods. Then we found a bit more belief but they scored the second and then the third was an own goal. It came off the ‘keeper and then Sean Kavanagh couldn’t get out the way so it was a bit unfortunate the third one. It wasn’t a particularly good display; there weren’t enough good performances.”

The match saw some familiar faces return to the starting XI – and one new one – which Kit admitted were the only positives he could really take from a disappointing afternoon.

“There were lots of people coming back from injury,” he said. “It was James Musa’s first game since he signed which was obviously good. It was Alex Brister’s first game back from injury, he’s been out for a few weeks so things like that we’ll take as positives but there’s not too many today to be honest.

“Liverpool are a good team but we obviously set our standards very high and I still expected more than what we were able to produce today. There’s no shame or embarrassment losing 3-0 away to Liverpool because they’re a decent side but it’s more the manner of the defeat that disappointed me.”